228 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



trate, totally disabled, helpless, and seemingly seriously injured. The gannet, 

 much exhausted by the protracted struggle, was easily caught alive, and very 

 little the worse for fighting. 



Gaimets have never been considered as game birds and the flesh 

 of the adults must be very strong and unpalatable, but there is 

 plenty of evidence to show that the fat young birds have been 

 largely used for food, particularly in the European colonies. As 

 they are naturally long-lived birds, they would have increased more 

 rapidly than they have done if it were not for this and other natural 

 causes which have kept their numbers in check. They are naturally 

 sluggish and somewhat deaf, so that they are easily caught when 

 asleep on their nests or on the water. Mr. Gurney (1913) says that 

 they are frequently choked and killed by attempting to swallow 

 gunnards, " whose spinous dorsal fin may easily become wedged in 

 the gannet's throat." They are sometimes killed by plunging, into 

 boats containing freshly caught fish, or they become entangled in 

 fishermen's nets or are caught on hooks baited with fish. Un- 

 doubtedly many gannets, as well as other sea birds, starve to death 

 during prolonged periods of rough weather when it is difficult or im- 

 possible for them to catch fish. Mr. Gurney (1913) mentions such 

 a disaster, stating that the French ornithologist, M. BaiUon, "saw 

 the dead birds lying spread along the shore, and testifies to there 

 having been about 200 gannets, with some 500 razorbills, gulls, etc., 

 on an extent of 4 miles, near the mouth of the Somme." 



Winter. — As soon as the gannets leave their breeding grounds 

 they begin their autumn wanderings and southward migrations. 

 They have been seen on the Massachusetts coast in August, but the 

 main flight passes along the New England coast during September 

 and October and extends as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. I have 

 specimens in my collection taken off Cape Cod in both December 

 and January and a few birds winter regularly about Long Island, 

 but usually by November most of the gannets have gone farther 

 south, their movements being governed largely by the migration 

 of the herring. They winter regularly about Florida and in the 

 Gblf of Mexico, where they find an abundant food supply. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range.— The Gulf of St. Lawrence (Bird Rocks and 

 Bonaventure and a rock off the south coast of Newfoundland near 

 Cape St. Marys). Formerly near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, on a rock 

 near Grand Manan, Bay of Fundy, and on Perroquet Island, off 

 Mingan, Quebec. On several islands and rocks near the British 

 Isles (St. Kilda, Bass Eock, Ailsa Craig, etc.) and near Iceland 

 (Sulusker, Eldey, and Grimsey). Breeding grounds protected on 



